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I have a young 'olive' (i never can work out the colours) hen who has had her first intrest in the nestbox. She is mated to a 'green' male . She has laid three or four eggs in the nest but they are pinkish so i'm not sure if they are fertile. Can you help me please?

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I have a young 'olive' She has laid three or four eggs in the nest but they are pinkish so i'm not sure if they are fertile. Can you help me please?

Use a small torch and without moving the eggs shine the light directly into each of the eggs, this process is called candling. If they are fertile after 4-5 days you will see little red/pink lines starting to form inside. If in doubt, wait a few more days (till the 7 day mark after laying) and try again.

Half siblings is okay in some cases, but full siblings can cause genetic issues. Full siblings are only normally used by experienced show breeders when they know the extended genetic makeup of the birds.

If the eggs are not showing fertility, it would be a good idea to break up the pair.

Breaking up the pair can be done by removing one to another cage etc. If they are in an aviary and being colony bred its a lot harder. You can break the pairs bond by removing the hen from the aviary and put her in a cage with another cock for a few weeks. it takes around 2-3 weeks to break a strong bond and form a new one. then when they go back in the aviary, she should have forgotten all about her brother.

if you do not want the eggs to develop, throw them away , that is up to you

2. Only you can tell if your eggs are fertile. We cannot see them. Did you candle them as suggested?

3. Don't ever just take out one cock and put in another cock. The hen can often feel defensive, and kill the cock to protect the nest she thinks she has established.

4. You were asked what your breeding set up is like but there was no response and no picture. You ask for help but refuse to provide info that is requested. By answering our questions, we can help you more, and provide the best situation for your budgies. That is ultimately why we are all here.

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As a beginner I would not be breeding any relations what so ever... It just get to complicated in the future... expecially when colony breeding, as you are. The trick is to keep very good records. With out them you will be breeding relatives and not even know it. Some show breeders do what is called line breeding, there are threads about it, but again it takes very good record keeping and you can really only do it with closed breeding...

Mysixbabies....you just posted in another topic about some harsh comments. I am about to say something to you that you may see as harsh also.

The thing is we do know stuff on here and we try to share it for the welfare of the budgies first and foremost and we try to get people who either dont know things or dont care to know things to change what they are doing for the sake of the birds.

I have a couple of things I would like to say to you to make life for your birds better. Please take this advice in the way it is intended.

1. Please reshuffle all your birds so that NO BIRDS that are younger than 12 months of age are anywhere that a nestbox is...like in a colony aviary.

2. Please do not breed brother to sister, father to daughter. Even 99.9% of show breeders dont do that. Eggs and babies are exciting YES....but not when you have crossed boundaries and breeding siblings and still dont GET IT that it is wrong even when you have been told quite a few times.

Please take note of this advice and believe me it is meant to help your birds and ultimately make you a better bird owner. :hap:

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Mysixbabies....you just posted in another topic about some harsh comments. I am about to say something to you that you may see as harsh also.

The thing is we do know stuff on here and we try to share it for the welfare of the budgies first and foremost and we try to get people who either dont know things or dont care to know things to change what they are doing for the sake of the birds.

I have a couple of things I would like to say to you to make life for your birds better. Please take this advice in the way it is intended.

1. Please reshuffle all your birds so that NO BIRDS that are younger than 12 months of age are anywhere that a nestbox is...like in a colony aviary.

2. Please do not breed brother to sister, father to daughter. Even 99.9% of show breeders dont do that. Eggs and babies are exciting YES....but not when you have crossed boundaries and breeding siblings and still dont GET IT that it is wrong even when you have been told quite a few times.

Please take note of this advice and believe me it is meant to help your birds and ultimately make you a better bird owner. :hap:

okay I will take my two younger birds out (one is Storm that I will try to train) and the other is summer.

I will try to seperate the pairs that are related.

When Dad gets home from WA I hopfuly can persuade him to build my breeding cage! Woohoo!